Optimizing Parameters in the Application Configuration File

This section discusses how you can modify values for the parameters specified in your Siebel application configuration file to optimize the performance of a Mobile Web Client.

DockTxnsPerCommit

The value of this parameter specifies the number of transactions that Siebel Remote applies to the local database before performing a commit. If you have an environment where a large number of transactions are constantly being created, adjusting the value of DockTxnsPerCommit upwards might improve response time. In such a scenario, test a variety of values (for example, 1000, 2000, 3000) and determine which value is best for your environment.

The DockTxnsPerCommit parameter appears in the [Local] section of your application configuration file. The default value is 500.

AutoStopDB

Make sure that AutoStopDB is set to FALSE so that the SQL Anywhere database engine continues to execute after the user exits the Siebel application. This reduces the time required to restart the Siebel application at a later time. If AutoStopDB is set to TRUE, the SQL Anywhere database engine automatically closes down when you exit a Siebel application.

You set the AutoStopDBIn parameter in the [Local] section of your application configuration file. The default value is FALSE.

Allocating Memory to the SQL Anywhere Database Engine Cache

The amount of memory (especially cache) made available to the SQL Anywhere database engine is one of the major factors that can influence performance. The SQL Anywhere database engine uses memory for many purposes, but one of the major uses is to hold data that is accessed repeatedly, so that is does not have to retrieve data from the database each time it is needed.

You can configure how much memory is available to the cache by setting a value for the -c command line option in the ConnectString parameter of the siebel.cfg file. For example, the following entry:

-c15m -ch25m

allocates a minimum of 15 MB of memory to the cache. The value for the parameter (ch) indicates that the amount of memory allocated to the cache can be increased upwards to a maximum of 25 MB.

By default, the values for these parameters are expressed as a percentage of the total memory available. For example, the following entry:

-c5p -ch7p

specifies that a minimum of 5% of available memory be allocated to the cache memory and a maximum of 7%.

Allocating more memory to the memory cache of the SQL Anywhere database engine reduces the amount of memory that is available to other applications on the local machine.

As a guideline, use the difference between 80% of total machine memory and the amount of memory used by all applications on the machine during regular use. For example, if a local machine that has 512 MB of memory available uses 328 MB during regular use (after all applications including Siebel applications are loaded), then you can allocate 82 MB of memory to the cache of the SQL Anywhere database engine.

You should also conduct tests to determine an upper limit for the amount of memory that you can allocate to the SQL Anywhere database engine cache.

CAUTION: Do not increase the amount of memory allocated to the cache to a level that it results in paging. Paging is where memory utilization exceeds the total available memory and can cause reduced performance.

Sort Collation

The parameter SortCollation should be set to binary to optimize the retrieval of data from the local database. The SortCollation parameter is not a default part of the application configuration file. You have to manually add it to the configuration file of your Siebel application. You set the value of SortCollation in the [Local] section of your application configuration file.

For more information about this parameter, refer to the Siebel System Administration Guide. To determine the current status of SortCollation, see Alert 801 on Siebel SupportWeb.